Kelsen also views law as a system of coercion, a structure based on the threat of punishment in enforcing compliance. He, for example argues that law binds people to certain obligations that are backed by the possibility of sanctions such as fines, imprisonment, and other penalties; hence, law norms differ from other kinds of norms. These include social rules or moral principles that exist independently.

Whereas other types of systems may rely on voluntaristic compliance or incentives, like morality or social norms, a legal system must utilize coercion. For Kelsen, the role of coercion is an indispensable part of what law is because it's what compels people to obey legal norms. That is, if it isn't coercive enough to make them comply, then the law in question would not really work.

In contrast to the moral rules, which may motivate action on individual conscience or social approval, legal rules carry the threat of punishment, should they not be followed; this is what makes law peculiar-it imposes behavior through rule-making.

Legal norms often take a conditional form, for example, "if someone breaks the law, then they can be punished." This form reflects the idea that law operates under conditional obligations and sanctions, as opposed to from absolute moral imperatives